Combi Feeding Advice

I'm combi feeding pumping and giving formula. I do breastmilk during the day and formula at night and baby is sleeping longer stretches at night on the formula. Baby is 9 days old now

Following as slightly struggling!

I'm alternating between breastfeed and Formula, seems to be working okay for us!

@Nicole my health visitor said that breast milk is better quality at night but sleeping longer on formula defo sounds like a winner to me!

@Noshin so are you alternating 1 of each? How do you know how much they are getting on the breast feeds in comparison to the formula ones?

I just juggle in between as I’m not too great on breastmilk supply at the moment The highest I’ve got now is about 4oz each day so formula most of the time and breastmilk a bottle a day for night time feed. Before dawn feed

I’m triple feeding (formula , pumping and BFing). I tend to do a direct BF around 11am and another around 5pm. Other than that I pump every 3 hours and give him an expressed bottle. Usually around midnight he ends up with a formula bottle because I’ve run out of expressed milk by then lol. All through the night he drinks expressed milk and I continue to pump every 3-4 hours. This is because when he directly BFs he takes WAY too long

@Elle thank you! How much expresses are you giving ml/oz wise each feed? Also how long does the bottle take? I’m finding breast takes ages and bottle gone too quick!

@Kati he has between 90-120 ml per feed (he’s 5 weeks old tho still only 8.5lb as he was basically premature) . This is roughly every 3 hours all day and night. I am able to pump almost enough for this. This is by using a double electric hands free pump. No way I could achieve this with a manual pump. Way too slow and time consuming. I got the elvie stride double on Vinted. Absolute game changer He drinks a 90-120 ml bottle in about 10 mins if that’s what you mean. Direct BF takes literally hours. Like he can be on there 3 or 4 hours and still be super hungry. Not sure why. That’s why I don’t do much direct BFing anymore. Takes wayyyy too long 😞

@Elle thank you so much for the info. I have the elvie as well but just the single and I get about 60ml out of that at the mo 15 mins on each side so I might just extend that to 20mins. He seems to have lost the latch on the left side at the moment so I want to start giving him more bottles so he’s defo had enough. He is only 2 weeks and loads a load of weight in first week so we have a feeding plan that we have to top up on formula every feed 65ml after the breast but I’m not convinced he’s getting enough when he’s latched plus he just falls asleep as soon as he starts suckling. Really appreciate the advice, sending lots of love to you and your little one ❤️